Canada knows

A quick question and answer email in March 2008 between Rebecca's sister, Barbara Moodhe and Glen Bradbury, assistant to the Honorable Dan McTeague, Official Opposition Critic for Consular Affairs, in Canada provided some very insightful answers. We have failed to receive any of this information from our own Consulate Officials or US Representatives.

The following is a transcript of that email:

Q.) Have you heard of Rebecca Roth, I am her sister. I am impressed with your efforts to help your Canadian citizen. My family and I have tried everything we know of to get the US Government involved and we have not succeeded. Feb. 13th was the 2nd year anniversary of Rebecca’s imprisonment.

A.) Yes, we are aware of Rebecca Roth.

Q.) Who is your counterpart in the U.S.? Could you help us get in touch with that person?

A.) Mr. McTeague is the Official Opposition Critic for Consular Affairs. There is no equivalent to this position in the US presidential/congressional government system. We have the British parliamentary system in Canada. In the U.S. the lead authority for the government on foreign affairs is the US Secretary of State (Ms. Rice). However, congressionally speaking, you also have some very influential representatives on the Congress and Senate Foreign Affairs Committees. Then, you have the regular congress and senate representatives.

Q.) Could you help form a coalition between the Canadian and U.S. governments to demand some sort of resolution?

A.) It would be virtually impossible to form a political coalition with U.S. and Canada governments. For one thing, Mr. McTeague is not in the governing party. He is in opposition.

Q.) There are 2 employees involved in this. Not just the Canadian. Mexico had 5 years to build a case against these two women and they didn’t do it. They started only after they arrested them.

A.) Yes, the case is a travesty in so many ways. One could argue that the authorities just filled in the blanks with Rebecca’s and Brenda's names on the charge sheet and eventually got around to taking them in - once there was no one else left to give them bribes.

Q.) They had both of these women listed as Pres. Fox’s achievements while in Office. They waited to arrest them until 2006, shortly before he went out of office. Why did they wait until then? Was it just to make it look like he had done something about the Alyn Waage scandal? An attorney uncovered something on the internet that showed this list of achievements. Until that was discovered, we were totally in the dark for why these two women were arrested. We have not been able to get answers to questions from our own government.

A.) Again, it appears that the arrests were motivated either by a quest for money or to advance the career of the prosecutor. It may also be politically motivated to uphold the former president's boast about the Waage fraud scheme being a tremendous victory in the fight against crime in Mexico.

Q.) In the realm of International Law what should the US Consulate and the Mexican Government have done that they didn’t do? Or what shouldn’t they have done that they did do?

A.) Under International law this case would have been thrown out long ago. To begin with, neither Rebecca nor Brenda should be in a general prison population while their trial is progressing. Fundamentally, their rights of due process and under the universally accepted principle of "national treatment" throughout the Mexican judicial process to date were fundamentally ignored. They were not provided with interpretation; they were not informed they were suspects prior to being interrogated by police; they were denied appropriate legal counsel; they were not given ample time or resources to receive and respond to the charges; the right to supply witnesses or cross-examination were limited or denied outright. In short, this case has been a travesty from the outset. The judge had already written the verdict without any consideration of the defense and, finally, it is clear that if money were offered in bribes, there would not even be a case.
(end of email transcript)


This dialogue is interesting in many ways.

It shows how politics can muddy the waters for the citizens it is intended to serve, how the Mexican legal system is run amok and needs a complete overhaul, how Consulate and Embassy officials neither serve nor communicate with others that can serve. You have to ask yourself why wouldn't the US Consulate take a more active role from the outset and then why, considering the magnitude that Mr Bradbury states how Rebecca's rights were abused, wouldn't the Consulate get the State Department involved?

This whole mess and the response of the US Consulate and State Department and the continuing lack of interest on the part of the US Reps in Congress to help a US citizen should serve as a loud and clear message. Anyone thinking of travelling abroad better realize that they will be on their own and that the belief that most people hold that our government is always there to protect us in times of need is indeed a trust misplaced.